


To Build a Home

by Swim2520



Category: Nancy Drew (TV 2019)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Background Relationships, Canon Compliant, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, During Canon, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Implied Relationships, Male-Female Friendship, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29201487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swim2520/pseuds/Swim2520
Summary: Nancy Drew always prided herself on being an independent woman, of proving that she did not need anyone, especially a man, to rely on. And then she met Ace. And he changed everything.A series of short stories before, during, or after episodes of Season 1 that show the growing trust, friendship, and maybe even something more between Nancy and Ace.
Relationships: Ace & Nancy Drew, Ace/Nancy Drew
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	To Build a Home

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, again!
> 
> I feel like its been forever since I've written anything for this series. I have had plenty of ideas for stories to write, but other stories I was writing grabbed my attention first. But I always kept coming back to this one. I feel like there was so much going on beyond the camera between Nancy and Ace-interactions that helped build up their relationship. So, naturally I have to write about THAT pre-canon scene between Nancy and Ace. I know that I already wrote a one-shot about it, but this story only contains minor similarities to that. 
> 
> I'm hoping that I will be able to catch up to episodes of Season 2, which I am loving right now. There is literally so much material there to explore between these two characters and I want to catch up before they get too far into the season. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.

As soon as it looked like George was going to be preoccupied teaching the new girl-Bess-how to properly serve a table for the next who-knows-how-long, Nancy made a graceful exit through the Claw’s back entrance. She still had an hour left in her shift, but business had slowed to practically a crawl, and Nancy desperately needed some fresh air. George would throw a hissy fit later, but Nancy could care less at the moment. 

She wasn’t the only one who needed some fresh air, apparently. 

The Claw’s resident dishwasher, Ace, was also outside. He was sitting on a wooden crate, smoking a cigarette. He glanced at her as she exited the Claw and took a seat on the crate across from him, but said nothing. That was what Nancy liked about Ace. 

Since her mom’s death a few months ago, Nancy’s life had been full of words. Far too many people had given Nancy their condolences at the funeral that sounded sympathetic, but overused (in her opinion). Her father suddenly remembered he had a daughter-a daughter that had tanked her grades as she struggled to cope with watching her mother slowly die, which he had only _just_ noticed. Karen, her mother’s good friend, had been good to Nancy, too, but there were moments when even her words aggravated her. And...well, Nick was just a way to forget everything. Talking with someone about her problems was _not_ what Nancy had signed up for with him. Everyone was saying something...yet none of it was what Nancy actually wanted to hear-what she _needed_ to hear.

Ace was different. 

Truthfully, she didn’t know him very well. 

He was a year above her at school and a bit of a loner, so they had not crossed social circles at all until they started working together. Ace was a private guy-which was a given since Nancy did not even know his last name. Yet, she seemed to be most comfortable around him. 

Given how Nancy had come to hate talking to people about her personal life, maybe it was because Ace _didn’t_ talk. He would simply sit on a crate, smoking, and listen while Nancy told him whatever she needed to get off her chest. Then, they sit in silence until George would come and yell at them to get back to work. 

It was a bit of a routine by now, which Nancy was grateful for. She really needed to rant to someone about her life at the moment. 

“You’re probably wondering what tonight’s rant is probably going to be about,” Nancy began. She had never been one to mince words. 

Ace did not respond. 

“Well...I had a _delightful_ chat with my guidance counselor today about the state of my grades. It went about as well as you can imagine.” Translated-it went absolutely terribly.

After her mother’s death, Nancy took two weeks off of school. When she returned to school, the administration forced Nancy to attend mandatory “counsel” sessions with her guidance counselor. They met twice a week in his office where her counselor tried to get her to talk to him about how her mother’s death affected her. If Nancy refused to speak to her own father about what was going on in her head, then she had no idea how the counselor expected her to to talk to him. When that failed, the counselor moved to talking about her grades in hopes that it would inspire some kind of conversation (it didn't).

Outside of the administration, the only person that knew about the mandatory counseling was Ace. She admitted it to him during one of their first ranting sessions (even though she was the only one who ever spoke during them). The only reason why she continued doing it was because no one else ever found out about it. 

“My counselor thinks that my drop in grades was a way for me to act out; a way to somehow keep my parents' attention. Which is a total lie, by the way. He really thought that would get me to open up. The idiot,” Nancy continued, muttering the last part to herself. “I have no idea how the school thinks that guy is going to help me ‘cope’. It’s a joke.”

Once again, Ace said nothing. He continued to sit on his crate, smoking, and staring out at the water. But Nancy knew that he was listening. He was always listening. 

And when she finished ranting, he would say nothing else. Because even though they barely knew each other, Ace somehow understood that Nancy did not need someone to tell her everything was going to get better. 

Nancy was a reasonable person. She knew that, one day, the pain of her mother’s death wouldn’t hurt as much. There would be days where she felt otherwise, but for the most part, she would be able to move forward (because she would never be able move on) with her life. She knew all that. There was no point in repeating something that Nancy knew already. In fact, it only angered her more because it felt like people were trying to _force_ things to be better, which only made everything worse-in Nancy’s opinion. Even her father wanted to pretend as if the past year had never happened. As if Nancy could forget how much it hurt to realize that her father had forgotten _her._

Ace understood all that. Somehow. He had figured out that Nancy did not need someone to talk to. She needed someone to _listen._

“At the end of every session, he tells me that everything is going to be okay. And every time, I have to resist the urge to tell him that I know that. I know that one day the pain of my mom _dying_ won’t be so fresh. That’s not the problem. The problem is that things aren’t okay _right now._ Half the time I feel like I’m barely keeping my head above the surface of it all. The other half...well, I have to resist running away from it all,” Nancy admitted. 

Honestly, this was the deepest Nancy had ever gotten into her feelings with Ace. Most of the time, she kept things at the surface. But Ace had proven time and time again that he wasn’t going to share her secrets or feelings and force her to deal with them-like everyone in her life seemed to want at the moment-even when she was far from ready.

They expected Nancy to put herself back together. Hell, they probably thought she _had_ put herself back together. Nancy put up a good front. In reality, every day was a battle. 

It was difficult to describe how much her mom meant to her. Her mom seemed to always know what Nancy was thinking, which was both incredibly useful and incredibly frustrating. She was the one who inspired Nancy’s love of mysteries. She was even the one who taught Nancy little tricks to help her handle her anxiety attacks that were so frequent when she was younger. Her mom was patient, kind, understanding, and most of all, loving. Her mom had always been there. And with her suddenly gone forever, Nancy was having difficulty comprehending that simple fact. Something that no one seemed to understand. It was like a piece of Nancy had died when her mother did. And without that piece, Nancy was slowly drowning-unable to find her place in this world without her mother's presence there to guide her. 

Nancy ran a hand through her messy hair and followed Ace’s gaze to the distant horizon. She was done sharing for tonight. 

Ace, of course, said nothing. But as they both heard the stomping that could only be George coming out to yell at them several minutes later, he glanced at her and nodded once. Instantly, Nancy knew that Ace was just letting her know that he would never share her secrets, that he _understood._ Nancy returned the nod, silently thanking him for listening. 

**Author's Note:**

> I know that we did not get a lot of Ace in this chapter, but that's simply because I needed to set up the rest of the story first. I needed to establish where Nancy is in the story. This story is going to shine a light on the ongoing mental challenges that Nancy faces this season since she was presented with so many and the show did not really explore them. In future chapters, there will be more of Ace.


End file.
